Vandalism Shocks New Jersey Community

Residents of Highland Park, a small New Jersey community with a sizable Jewish population, awoke this morning to find the front windows of five Jewish-owned businesses dotting the city’s mile-long main street broken and shattered. The Middlesex County town has had an eruv since 1978, designed to accommodate observant Jews during Shabbat, which now encircles the neighboring towns of Edison and New Brunswick.

At 1 a.m. Wednesday morning, Avi Reiss, owner of Trio Gifts, a Judaica shop on Raritan Avenue in Highland Park received a phone call from the police saying a window of his shop had been broken. Someone launched a piece of pavement through the store’s large front window, shattering it entirely, Reiss—who had been manning the store since that early-morning call—explained over the phone as the wind tore through the gaping hole.

Rabbi Ed Prince, the mashgaich responsible for overseeing the kosher cooking at Jerusalem Pizza, arrived at the Raritan Avenue pizzeria at 7:30 a.m to a broken window, and noticed several other damaged storefronts over a five-block commercial stretch. Also hit was kosher restaurant Park Place and Judaica Gallery. Jack’s Hardware, which is Jewish-owned, sustained a broken window. Other visibly Jewish establishments, such as a kosher Chinese restaurant, kosher butcher, and jewelry store, were not damaged.

The Wednesday morning attacks occurred only days after a brick was thrown through the window of the nearby Rutgers Hillel Saturday night, which Hillel executive director Andrew Getraer—who lives in Highland Park—said broke a computer and shattered glass across the office, and which is being investigated by the police. Further troubling for Getraer, who saw the Raritan Avenue damage on his way to work Wednesday, a Rutgers student active in the Jewish student community, who wears a yarmulke, was allegedly confronted in Highland Park’s kosher Dunkin’ Donuts Tuesday night by a man who identified himself as a neo-Nazi and referenced Kristallnacht—the night the Nazis destroyed Jewish-owned shops—while being thrown out by employees. The incident was reported to the police, as well as the university and the Anti-Defamation League.

The Highland Park Police Department issued a statement about the Raritan Avenue attacks, saying, “Detectives are actively investigating these incidents and are in contact with and coordinating efforts with other law enforcement agencies that may be able to expedite the investigation.”

The Police Department of Highland Park, a close-knit community with an active Jewish population, acknowledged the troubling nature of the damaged storefronts, if inconclusively: “We would also like to briefly address the fear that these are acts motivated by anti-Semitism or that these are bias crimes. The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office has been notified, but it is too soon to reach a conclusion.”

“We are appalled by the targeting of Jewish stores and Jewish campus institutions at Rutgers,” said an ADL regional leader. “These shocking crimes target the entire Jewish community as these locations appear to have been selected because of their Jewishness.

Highland Park, which Rabbi Prince called a “one-horse town,” has a population of just below 14,000 people, with nearly 10 synagogues, two Jewish day schools, a Yeshiva high school, and a girls’ school serving the town’s predominantly Orthodox Jewish residents, one of which is Highland Park mayor, Gary Minkoff. Trio Gifts was open for business Wednesday, as were the other businesses. “You can’t keep a good shop down,” Reiss explained. “The plan is to fix the window and move on.”

WAIT, WHY DO I HAVE TO PAY TO COMMENT?
Tablet is committed to bringing you the best, smartest, most enlightening and entertaining reporting and writing on Jewish life, all free of charge. We take pride in our community of readers, and are thrilled that you choose to engage with us in a way that is both thoughtful and thought-provoking. But the Internet, for all of its wonders, poses challenges to civilized and constructive discussion, allowing vocal—and, often, anonymous—minorities to drag it down with invective (and worse). Starting today, then, we are asking people who'd like to post comments on the site to pay a nominal fee—less a paywall than a gesture of your own commitment to the cause of great conversation. All proceeds go to helping us bring you the ambitious journalism that brought you here in the first place.

I NEED TO BE HEARD! BUT I DONT WANT TO PAY.
Readers can still interact with us free of charge via Facebook, Twitter, and our other social media channels, or write to us at letters@tabletmag.com. Each week, we’ll select the best letters and publish them in a new letters to the editor feature on the Scroll.

We hope this new largely symbolic measure will help us create a more pleasant and cultivated environment for all of our readers, and, as always, we thank you deeply for your support.

Anti-semitism is up 28% since last year in the New York area. Bad economic times unleash the crazies-but as my late father always said, “Don’t kid yourself, it can happen here”. The religious right, which claims to love Israel is also a hot bed of gun toting lunatics. Maybe its time that Jews also armed themselves.

high unemployment, high prices, recession, of course anti semitism is next. what was germany like just before the nazis took over. Jews prepare and beware. Do not be shocked or surprised read our history.

David-do you have a copy of your local yellow pages?-check the listings for psychaitrists What does this have to do with Israel and Palestinans and whom Jews support? Jews are as free to express opinions as anyoine else. Do you have a problem with that? I don’t know if you are Jewish or not but I do know that you are a fool at best and a hater at worst.

Not a hate crime
A mentally challenged soul
Who needs help
rabbi rosenberg

Mr. Green is a poor Jewish male with a long history of mental illness., it is a shame that his religion and his serious mental illness are not made public. He needs help and perhaps there is a mental institution where he can get help. This is the second day that the media intentionally or unintentionally misinform people by omitting critical facts from the story. CHECK THIS OUT. RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG

Not a hate crime
A mentally challenged soul
Who needs help
rabbi rosenberg

Mr. Green is a poor Jewish male with a long history of mental illness., it is a shame that his religion and his serious mental illness are not made public. He needs help and perhaps there is a mental institution where he can get help. This is the second day that the media intentionally or unintentionally misinform people by omitting critical facts from the story. CHECK THIS OUT. RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG

Not a hate crime A mentally challenged soul Who needs help Mr. Green is a poor Jewish male with a long history of mental illness. his serious mental illness are not made public. He needs help and perhaps there is a mental institution where he can get help. This is the second day that the media intentionally or unintentionally misinform people by omitting critical facts from the story.
Unfortunately, now that he has gone ahead and committed crimes and shown himself to be unstable and destructive, he will be in the “system” for significant time. RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG edison nj. rabbi dr. bernhard rosenberg

Not a hate crime A mentally challenged soul Who needs help Mr. Green is a poor Jewish male with a long history of mental illness. his serious mental illness are not made public. He needs help and perhaps there is a mental institution where he can get help. This is the second day that the media intentionally or unintentionally misinform people by omitting critical facts from the story.
Unfortunately, now that he has gone ahead and committed crimes and shown himself to be unstable and destructive, he will be in the “system” for significant time. RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG edison nj. rabbi dr. bernhard rosenberg

Not a hate crime A mentally challenged soul Who needs help Mr. Green is a poor Jewish male with a long history of mental illness. his serious mental illness are not made public. He needs help and perhaps there is a mental institution where he can get help. This is the second day that the media intentionally or unintentionally misinform people by omitting critical facts from the story.
Unfortunately, now that he has gone ahead and committed crimes and shown himself to be unstable and destructive, he will be in the “system” for significant time. RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG732 572 2766 edison nj. rabbi dr. bernhard rosenberg

Rabbi Rosenberg’s comments are accurate. According to many sources, mysteriously not being reported by the media, the person under arrest is a Jewish man who has a history of mental health problems. One of the store owners told me he knows the man, and he even shopped in his store regularly.

Name (required)Email (required, will not be published)Website (optional)

Message

2000

Your comment may be no longer than 2,000 characters, approximately 400 words. HTML tags are not permitted, nor are more than two URLs per comment. We reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments.